Dooley Shorty — Navajo Silversmith Hallmark

Name-card placeholder — hallmark imagery to follow.

Navajo · documented in the T.Skies hallmark library

Dooley Shorty (1911–2000; Navajo) was a silversmith instructor in Albuquerque and at the Indian School at Fort Wingate in the late 1930s. He helped Ambrose Roanhorse implement the IACB (Indian Arts and Crafts Board) stamping program in 1938, and was one of the silversmiths demonstrating their work at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

Shorty became a Code Talker in World War II and was one of the original instructors teaching codes to fellow Navajo Code Talkers. For some thirty years he taught silver smithing and leather work at the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah.

The Hougart record also notes that in 1940 Kenneth Chapman reportedly sent stamps to Ambrose Roanhorse and Dooley Shorty for use in the IACB stamping program. At d'Harnoncourt's urging, Chapman, Roanhorse, Dooley Shorty, and others demonstrated silversmithing. The broader Hougart narrative places Shorty firmly in the Guild-formation and IACB institutional context of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The mark

The Hougart record does not document a specific personal mark for Dooley Shorty in the available corpus. His mark is recorded as "?" in the Hougart entry.

References

• Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Schiffer Publishing, 2022. Entry approx. p. ~26127.
• Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. (Cited in Hougart 5e, footnote 25, approx. p. ~26140.)
• McClerran, 2009 (cited in Hougart 5e, footnote 26).
• Levy, 1980 (cited in Hougart 5e).

Know more about this artist? Contact T.Skies. See also: Ambrose Roanhorse (colleague in IACB stamping program).